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Council

Are you happy with the overall performance of St.Albans district council?

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Speeding Problems

Is there a speeding problem on your road?

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Name of your road

Issues

Which do you consider the greater current issue?

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Education in St.Albans

Road Maintenance

Congestion in St.Albans

Housing overdevelopment

Crime and Anti-social Behaviour

The environment

Cleanliness of streets

Local business/commerce

NHS

Overall Tax burden

Gypsy sites

News

I am asking for your support in the by – election for St Albans North County Division.

Dear Resident,

I am asking for your support in the by – election for St Albans North County Division.

A by-election has been called in the County Division of St Albans North, following the resignation of the Liberal Democrat incumbent after only ten months in the position.

I have been selected as the Conservative Candidate to contest this seat in the election to be held on Thursday 3rd May (at the same time as the District Council elections).

Many of you will already know me because I have been District councillor in Marshalswick South for the last twelve years, representing you as one of your Conservative councillors.

I have campaigned vigorously for better bus services; greater police presence with more CCTV; and the repair of potholes, destroyed pavements and grass verges.

Despite stories to the contrary the Local Plan will be put forward, by the District Council, for approval at the appropriate time, following consultation with the electorate. The imposed number of houses per year will create a district 25% bigger than at present. I firmly believe that infrastructure improvements must go hand in hand with new developments; but there is a need to look at brownfield sites as well as Green Belt sites.

In 2015 I was honoured to be chosen by my peers in the Conservative run District Council to represent all citizens of this Great and Ancient city as Mayor. This role was, and is always, undertaken with no political leanings and I believe I carried it out with style and dignity.

For those of you who do not know me, al little background and some personal details. I was born in a small village in North East Turkey and I came to St Albans in 1972. Initially I worked in various restaurants and I founded my first restaurant in 1978. At this time I met and married, at the Baptist Church in Sherwood Avenue, my wife of now forty years, Maureen, a local St Albans girl. We have two children, a boy and a girl and we have a grandson Jack. Together we built our business with more restaurants and bars, and some retail units.

I was able to indulge my interest in photo journalism, and I went to war torn Bosnia. The discovery of the distress of innocent people led me to take aid materials there which were distributed to suffering children, some of whom were orphans. I raised lots of money locally to relieve their plight.

There will always be proposed future projects and developments which will require a strong voice to either defend or promote them and I hope you will agree that a strong, campaigning councillor is the best choice for St Albans North.

I want to see: -

Pothole free roads

A Litter free city and environs

More school places

Less air pollution

Improved infrastructure

Protection of pavements and verges

A greener environment

I will, of course, listen to your concerns and discuss these with you when I am out calling on you in the next four weeks.

I ask you, please give me your vote on Thursday May 3rd for me to represent you at County Council.

Following extensive consultations with local residents, the controlled parking zone implementation will take place in the near future.

The scheme will be timed so there will be two short periods, one in the morning and afternoon when only residents will be permitted to park.

This will discourage commuters who park in Culver Road, Heath Road and Walton Street and walk to the station. Unless this controlled parking zone (CPZ) also covers nearby roads commuters will simply park in other nearby streets and displace the problem.

Whilst this CPZ does not have the blessing of all residents, the majority of those who responded to the consultation were in favour of the scheme.

Local resident and Conservative candidate, Craig Fothergill said “The increasing amount of inconsiderate commuter parking in our roads means that residents, like myself coming home from work, school runs or shopping have found it increasingly difficult to park anywhere near our homes. This is particularly difficult for those with children, shopping and in bad weather. I welcome the work done by our local councillors to give the community what they want”.

Your local councillors continue to campaign for appropriate action to protect verges and footpaths from damage caused by inconsiderate parking, builder’s vehicles and delivery vehicles. Whilst there are planning permission informatives to protect verges and footpaths, they are only advisory and not enforceable by Council Officers.

It takes months for verges to recover and damaged paving stones are a trip hazard. It is unacceptable. We need an enforceable by-law, enforcement action and prosecution of drivers who damage verges and footpaths in our district.

Many of you will remember Beech Road Post Office closed temporarily in April 2017, following the resignation of the Postmaster and the withdrawal of the premises for Post Office use.

We have some good news; the Post Office are re-opening the branch at the Shell Garage, King William Service Station, 2 Beech Road, from Friday 16 February 2018, approximately 25 metres from the old branch.

The new operator stated they will improve access with marked pedestrian walkways from the pavement to the store entrance.

Local resident, Craig Fothergill said “The loss of this facility to local residents was upsetting for many residents. I welcome the initiative shown by the Shell station operator to provide this much needed service to local residents”.

Your Liberal County Councillor, Charlotte Hogg who has a yearly HLB of £90,000, but has so far spent a mere £27,273 on local projects.

Meanwhile on Beech Road, parents and children are forced to take refuge in the cross hatchings in the middle of the road and dodge moving traffic to reach local schools. It’s easy for Cllr Hogg to blame the County Council administration rather than do something to keep residents safe.

More action will be taken this year to reduce energy use in St Albans and further cut harmful emissions. The Council is on track to meet its target of a 20% reduction District-wide for greenhouse gas emissions in the period ending 2020/21.

Over the coming year, the Council will continue to encourage energy efficiency with a series of initiatives. To find out more about these go to

New recycling bins have been installed at Verulamium Park as part of a long-term plan to roll out similar bins across council-run parks. The new bins have a separate compartment for the recycling of plastics and tins, with another for general refuse.

We’ve already done so much and, with your votes, we can continute the good work of the Conservative Party in your local area.

Vote to keep Marshalswick south Conservative by giving both Richard Curthoys and Steve McKeown your vote on Thursday, January 29. Since the Conservatives took control of the District Council, all of the empty retail units in the City centre are now taken. This is not just a coincidence, it shows that our policies are working and almost 100 places are being looked at with plans to create free on-street parking to help boost business.

We’ve also achieved:

The creation of hundreds of new affordable homes from derelict garage sites.
Given our support to keep the Pioneer Youth Club open, or relocate it to secure it for future generations.
Protected the historic architecture of St Albans while allowing improvements.
Safeguarded the Green Belt from inappropriate development.
Read more...

We will support ward Councillor Salih Gaygusuz in his drive to get more free on-street parking spaces introduced in St Albans City centre. These will add to the charge free spaces he has already seen created. There are 73 parking spaces in the pipeline, which will make a total of almost 100 FREE City centre parking spaces.